William Ryan Fritch – The Letdown
Release date: 06/12/2020
Genre: Jazz
‘The Letdown’ from multi-instrumentalist William Ryan Fritch kicks off Lost Tribe Sound’s new label series “Built Upon A Fearful Void.” The series introduces fifteen new albums to the label’s roster over the next year, five of which will come courtesy of Fritch, including a new release as his alter ego, Vieo Abiungo.
‘The Letdown’ is a record better identified by the vibe it creates rather than a particular genre or style. It’s dirty, unapologetically loud and charmingly haphazard. It’s the sort of self-educated, non-jazz record that critics of Moondog would have written off as impure. Frankly, we’re good with that. The strength of the record lies not with any collegiate-level classification, but in its ability conjure moods that just feel good, are instantly familiar and invite a certain nostalgia. The gritty, noir side of it, brings to mind the old black and white detective stories. The jovial, 1920’s romanticism, lends a bit of class and gives the sense that even though everything is falling to shit, we are going to power through it with a bit of song and dance.
Whatever one happens to take away from this album, ‘The Letdown’ is meant to be fun, help the whisky burn just a bit less, and keep the blood flowing. Read into it too much and you might spoil it. Guaranteed it is unlike any Fritch record to date.
01 Unhinged
02 Free Radical
03 Compulsion / Going Through The Motions
04 Initiative
05 Dream Differently
06 Experiment
07 Curls of Smoke / False Confidence
08 Unraveling
09 Progress Traps
10 Ashen Relics
11 The Letdown
12 Hesitation / Recurring
13 Shuttered
14 Dream Glitch / Fugue State / Broken Barriers
15 What’s Left Unfilched
